Related papers: The convective Urca process
Ultramassive white dwarfs are extreme endpoints of stellar evolution. Recent findings, such as a missing multi-Gyr cooling delay for a number of ultramassive white dwarfs and a white dwarf with a quasi-Chandrasekhar mass, motivate a better…
We perform evolutionary calculations of binary stars to find progenitors of systems with parameters similar to the recurrent nova U Sco. We show that a U Sco-type system may be formed starting with an initial binary system which has a…
The treatment of convection remains a major weakness in the modelling of stellar evolution with one-dimensional (1D) codes. The ever increasing computing power makes now possible to simulate in 3D part of a star for a fraction of its life,…
Accurate models of cooling white dwarfs must treat the energy released as their cores crystallize. This phase transition slows the cooling by releasing latent heat and also gravitational energy, which results from phase separation: liquid C…
We explore the effects of the residual $\mathrm{^{12}C}$ present in oxygen-neon white dwarfs (ONe WDs) on their evolution towards accretion-induced collapse (AIC). We produce a set of ONe WD models using MESA and illustrate how the amount…
We present calculations indicating the possibility of a new class of Type I supernovae. In this new paradigm relativistic terms enhance the self gravity of a carbon-oxygen white dwarf as it passes or orbits near a black hole. This…
Although there is a nearly universal agreement that type Ia supernovae are associated with the thermonuclear disruption of a CO white dwarf, the exact nature of their progenitors is still unknown. The single degenerate scenario envisages a…
A leading model for Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) begins with a white dwarf near the Chandrasekhar mass that ignites a degenerate thermonuclear runaway close to its center and explodes. In a series of papers, we shall explore the consequences…
Ultra-massive white dwarfs are relevant for their role as type Ia Supernova progenitors, the occurrence of physical processes in the asymptotic giant-branch phase, the existence of high-field magnetic white dwarfs, and the occurrence of…
The process referred to as "semi-convection" in astrophysics and "double-diffusive convection in the diffusive regime" in Earth and planetary sciences, occurs in stellar and planetary interiors in regions which are stable according to the…
The precise progenitor system of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), whether it is a white dwarf (WD) close to the Chandrasekhar limit or substantially less massive, has been a matter of debate for decades. Recent research by our group on the…
We perform two-dimensional numerical simulations of core convection for zero-age-main-sequence stars covering a mass range from 3 $M_\odot$ to 20 $M_\odot$. The simulations are performed with the fully compressible time-implicit code MUSIC.…
Volatiles, notably water, are key to the habitability of rocky planets. The presence of water in planetary material can be inferred from the atmospheric oxygen abundances of polluted white dwarfs, but this interpretation is often complex.…
Mergers of carbon-oxygen (CO) white dwarfs (WDs) are considered as one of the potential progenitors of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). Recent hydrodynamical simulations showed that the less massive (secondary) WD violently accretes onto the…
Sub-Neptunes and Neptunes are often modeled with distinct, fully convective layers. Yet, there are several arguments for compositions gradients that can inhibit convection. In these regions, energy transport depends on the thermal…
In recent times, astounding observations of both over- and under-luminous type Ia supernovae have emerged. These peculiar observations hint not only at surpassing the Chandrasekhar limit but may also suggest potential modifications in the…
We present a statistical model which shows the influence of turbulence on a thermonuclear flame propagating in C+O white dwarf matter. Based on a Monte Carlo description of turbulence, it provides a method for investigating the physics in…
The merger of two carbon-oxygen white dwarfs can lead either to a spectacular transient, stable nuclear burning or a massive, rapidly rotating white dwarf. Simulations of mergers have shown that the outcome strongly depends on whether the…
There is a wide consensus in the astrophysics community that the mechanism underlying the observed Classical Nova eruptions is a surface thermonuclear runaway. We start this short review with the main observational facts that lead to the…
We investigate the effects of rotation on the behavior of the helium burning shell source in accreting carbon-oxygen white dwarfs, in the context of the single degenerate Chandrasekhar mass progenitor scenario for Type Ia supernovae (SNe…